Beating the drum with Indians.com reporter Jordan Bastian

Getting up to [game] speed

The Indians played some baseball today. At 10:45 local time, Jeanmar Gomez let loose a strike against Jason Donald for the first unofficial pitch of the 2011 season. The Tribe held its first intrasquad game of the spring and played under blue skies and the Arizona sun for four innings.

Gomez got the starting nod for Smitty’s American Racers (coached by third base coach Steve Smith) and Justin Masterson took the ball for Sarby’s Sour-Balls (coached by Triple-A manager Mike Sarbaugh). The Racers won, 3-2, with Donald leading the way with a single, triple and one run scored, plus a nice barehanded play at third base.

“We’re undefeated,” Indians manager Manny Acta declared.

“Actually, you’re 1-1,” I quickly corrected.

Intrasquad games are nice, because it’s a pleasant change of pace from all the bullpen sessions and workout drills. For the team, it gives them a chance to simulate game speed shortly before the Cactus League slate opens up. Typically, pitchers are ahead of the hitters at this point, but the Tribe pounded out five extra base hits, including two triples.

Acta was impressed with what he saw from the lineup. He especially liked seeing guys taking extra bases and moving runners. That’s something he’s been emphasizing this spring. In the second inning, Matt LaPorta stretched a single into a double with some aggressive baserunning, too. It was exactly the type of thing Acta hopes to see more often this year.

“We got in the middle of the pack last year in our baserunning,” Acta said. “Our goal is to continue to get better and push, push, push until we can put some pressure on other people. We just want to be aggressive and smart.”

Notes from Thursday…

I had a lovely shot of Goodyear Ballpark that I was going to post here, but the blog is having some issues with allowing me to upload photos. So, if you want to be reminded of what baseball looks like, you’ll have to check out my Twitter feed or go to the yfrog page with the photos. Links are at the bottom of this post.

As you may have noticed, I was absent yesterday. Castrovince was in camp and he did a lovely blog post to wrap up Wednesday’s events. MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez also pinch hit for me and wrote somearticles for Indians.com. See that? It takes two reporters to do in one day what I do alone. [pats self on back]

So what did I do with my rare day off? I headed into Estrella Mountain Park and did 11+ miles of trail running/hiking. I felt like I was the only person on the face of the earth running out there in the desert terrain. It was a great day and being deep into the hills forced me to actually take a breather from the daily grind

Oh, you wanted actual baseball notes?

Acta walked away very impressed with the three big lefties — Nick Hagadone, Kevlin De La Cruz and Drew Pomeranz — who pitched the final stages of Thursday’s intrasquad game. When asked if he’d ever seen De La Cruz do a backflip, though, you should’ve seen Acta’s eyes widen. Told that the 6-foot-5 De La Cruz did just that early in camp before a workout, Acta smiled wide and said, “Really? He better not do another one.” But you could tell Acta wanted to see it for himself, too.

As for Pomeranz, Acta said: “[He] has that mound presence out there. It gives you the impression that nobody is going to hit him. He just has the look out there, that very confident look.” Pomeranz struck out one and walked one in one inning. The lefty noted that he was hitting around 92-95 on his fastball in instrux in October and he also used that time to focus on a changeup he’s been fine-tuning.

Donald made a fantastic play at third, bare-handing a ball and making a strong throw for a big out in the second inning. Acta said it will be more important to see how Donald handles the routine plays, though. Plays like Thursday’s are more about instincts and reaction. “That’s a play you see once a month,” Acta said. “We need to see the plays he’ll see every week.”

Donald noted that he traveled to San Diego in the offseason and worked with Steve Smith in some one-on-one sessions to prepare for the move to third. Donald said he has also been discussing positioning and other techniques with Travis Fryman here in camp. During BP, Donald is often at third to track balls in the zone and off the bat as well.

Gomez worked one clean inning and David Huff was roughed up a little in his inning. Both are competing for the fifth spot. Acta was asked how their respective outings might affect the fifth starter’s race. The manager just laughed. One-inning intrasquad outings do not influence a whole lot.

Jack Hannahan is in camp as a third baseman, but he’s been getting plenty of reps at short this week. He’s been taking grounders there and he started at short during Thursday’s game. Acta said Hannahan can also play first and second, if needed, and he could be in the mix for a utility job off the bench (similar to Adam Everett).

There is a report out there indicating that Grady Sizemore is likely moving to left field whenever he returns to the lineup. Letting you know that I have not heard that here in camp. Everyone I’ve talked to has said they believe center would actually be better on his legs due to having more room to decelerate when running. The corners can be harder on a player’s legs due to more plays at the wall and more abrupt stopping. So far, everyone has said Sizemore is in the plans for center. If I hear anything different, I will let you know.

Friday’s intrasquad game is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. local time on Field 1 at the Indians complex — not at Goodyear Ballpark. Pitchers slated to appear: Carrasco, Talbot, Judy, Herrmann, Laffey, Lewis, Pino, Reyes, Sipp, Todd, McAllister, Martinez, Stowell, Pestano

That’s all for today…

Be sure to keep checking the blog and Indians.com for updates from camp. Also, make sure you’re following along on Twitter (@MLBastian) and check out the “Jordan Bastian” fan page on Facebook for links to stories, blogs, photos and more. You can view more spring photos by checking out the stream on yfrog.com as well.

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4 Comments

good to read some clarification on Sizemore’s potential positional move JB. Thanks. There is a story on the mainpage about Sizemore targeting mid-April as a return date so he’d likely start the season on the DL. Is this an opinion that you share? If so, how would that affect the outfield predictament most notably Kearns, Duncan and Crowe?

good to read some clarification on Sizemore’s potential positional move JB. Thanks. There is a story on the mainpage about Sizemore targeting mid-April as a return date so he’d likely start the season on the DL. Is this an opinion that you share? If so, how would that affect the outfield predicament most notably Kearns, Duncan and Crowe?

sorry for the double post. So if Crowe is limited and while he’s not a pitcher any time you read “fatigue” the situation does not end well. If he’s out for any extended period of time and Sizemore begins the season on the DL I would think that Shelley Duncan just made the team by default. Would we carry only 4 OFs to start the season?

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